Charles Shaw Winery

The morning after a friend served Anna McNeal a glass of Charles Shaw Merlot, she made a beeline to the Mid-Wilshire Trader Joe's to stock up on the wine selling at an astonishing $1.99 a bottle. "I had to come and get a case," she said in a checkout line with half a dozen other shoppers who had somehow heard of the mysterious "Napa" wine.

Old wine, new flasks. A long-running battle between the maker of the popular $1.99 Charles Shaw wine -- widely known as Two-Buck Chuck -- and the nation's elite vintners over the use of "Napa" on labels came to an end Friday. Bronco Wine Co. agreed to drop "Napa" from the label of a wine made with grapes grown outside the famous Napa Valley wine region. Two of Bronco's Napa-named wines will contain Napa grapes, the Ceres, Calif., company said.

The maker of the popular $1.99 Charles Shaw wine, widely known as "Two Buck Chuck," might be winning on store shelves, but it has lost again in the courts. A state appeals court in Sacramento on Thursday rejected the arguments of Bronco Wine Co. in its fight to use the word "Napa" on wines that don't always contain grapes grown in California's Napa Valley wine region. Maverick winemaker Fred Franzia, owner of Ceres, Calif.

The maker of the popular $1.99 Charles Shaw wine, widely known as "Two Buck Chuck," might be winning on store shelves, but it has lost again in the courts. A state appeals court in Sacramento on Thursday rejected the arguments of Bronco Wine Co. in its fight to use the word "Napa" on wines that don't always contain grapes grown in California's Napa Valley wine region. Maverick winemaker Fred Franzia, owner of Ceres, Calif.

Old wine, new flasks. A long-running battle between the maker of the popular $1.99 Charles Shaw wine -- widely known as Two-Buck Chuck -- and the nation's elite vintners over the use of "Napa" on labels came to an end Friday. Bronco Wine Co. agreed to drop "Napa" from the label of a wine made with grapes grown outside the famous Napa Valley wine region. Two of Bronco's Napa-named wines will contain Napa grapes, the Ceres, Calif., company said.

In the premium wine region of Napa Valley, residents have found a new love: Two-Buck Chuck. Since Trader Joe's opened its first store in Napa two weeks ago, the privately held grocer and primary purveyor of the Charles Shaw brand has sold nearly 1,200 bottles a day of the $1.99 wine. The frenetic buying is a testament to the upstart label's mesmerizing hold on California's wine industry.

With wine sales sluggish nationally, marketing schemes become important. De Los Campos, for instance, is a line of light-styled wines targeted at Latin American and Southwestern cuisine restaurants. Charles Shaw Winery in the Napa Valley makes the two wines in the line, Chardonnay and Tinto. The latter is a Gamay Beaujolais--an excellent choice for drinking with Mexican food, if restaurateurs only knew it.

For the first time in its long history, Blue Nun wine will not have a nun dominating its label. The New York-based firm H. Sichel Sohne, which has produced Blue Nun in Germany for 64 years, said the Liebfraumilch wine will be adorned with an eggshell white label with a gold rim. Above the type is a small, stylized depiction of a nun, a fraction of the size of past labels. Also, the wine will be bottled in a taller, tapered bottle. Peter M. F.

It's not that Californians wanted to copy anyone, or that they wanted to jump into the fast lane of trendiness, but the idea of producing a nouveau-style Beaujolais was a perfect one for the north coast of the state. It all started a decade ago when Pinot Noir wasn't selling in the United States. French red Burgundy was still then considered king and prices for some of the better ones weren't excessive (that certainly has changed).

When Lou Foppiano walked into the Bank of America office in Santa Rosa last May seeking to renew his line of credit, he was shocked to learn that the line wouldn't be renewed without major new restrictions. "They basically said they weren't going to renew," Foppiano said. "So much for loyalty. We had been with the bank since 1924 and we owe nothing on our buildings or our land."

In the premium wine region of Napa Valley, residents have found a new love: Two-Buck Chuck. Since Trader Joe's opened its first store in Napa two weeks ago, the privately held grocer and primary purveyor of the Charles Shaw brand has sold nearly 1,200 bottles a day of the $1.99 wine. The frenetic buying is a testament to the upstart label's mesmerizing hold on California's wine industry.

The morning after a friend served Anna McNeal a glass of Charles Shaw Merlot, she made a beeline to the Mid-Wilshire Trader Joe's to stock up on the wine selling at an astonishing $1.99 a bottle. "I had to come and get a case," she said in a checkout line with half a dozen other shoppers who had somehow heard of the mysterious "Napa" wine.

It isn't a trend yet, but a number of major wine producers are betting money that light red wine will make a major comeback by next year, and perhaps by as early as this summer. And the name will be Gamay Beaujolais. Red wine has rarely been a big deal in the United States. Total sales of red wine lag that of white wine by a huge margin. It is estimated that total red wine sold in the United States last year accounted for only one bottle in five.

When Bart and Daphne Araujo bought the famed Eisele Vineyard in the northeastern quadrant of the Napa Valley, they knew they would make a great Cabernet Sauvignon. The Joseph Phelps Winery had made an excellent Cabernet from the property for two decades, and the Araujos had the fruit. All they needed was the right winemaker to turn their grapes into greatness. The Araujos could have hired an executive search firm to analyze the field and hire a winemaker for them.